The sport of hockey has been in existence for over one hundred years. Over that time period, many improvements have been made to hockey sticks; however, hockey sticks have remained substantially the same shape. It is well known that conventional hockey sticks comprise an elongate shaft and an angled blade securely connected to the lower end of the shaft. The blade may be permanently connected to the shaft or in other words, the hockey stick may be constructed as a unitary entity, or the blade may be removably mounted on the shaft, such as in the case of an aluminum or composite shaft. In any case, the shaft may be cut to an appropriate length for use by a hockey player.
Almost universally, the top end of the shaft of the hockey stick is either taped to provide a stop for precluding the hockey stick from slipping out of a person's hand. Alternatively, a moulded plastic end cap can be used. Further, hockey tape can be wound around the top few inches of the shaft to provide an improved grip for the hockey player's upper hand, or in other words the hockey player's hand that is gripping the upper end of the hockey stick.
As is well known, this arrangement is not ergonomic, and can tend to cause strain on the hand and wrist holding the upper end of the hockey stick. Further, the wrist is bent inappropriately, therefore providing for a less than maximum control. What typically happens is that a hockey player holds the taped butt end of the stick in the palm of his upper hand, which is undesirable, since it promotes lack of control of the hockey stick and allows the hockey stick to be more easily dropped.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,753 issued Nov. 19, 1985 to Gibbons, discloses an Angular Hockey Stick Grip, that is adapted to fit onto standard hockey stick shafts. The Angular hockey stick grip has a lower socket portion adapted to fit over the end of a conventional hockey stick and an integral angled gripping portion that intersects the socket portion at an angle of approximately 130 degrees. The handle is constructed of light weight plastic and is removably fastened to the hockey stick by means of suitable fasteners, such as threaded fasteners. While this angular hockey stick grip does make an attempt to provide additional comfort, it has several unacceptable drawbacks. Firstly, it is not usable in some hockey leagues. Secondly, it must fit over the top end of a conventional hockey stick. Accordingly, the lower socket portion must be substantially thicker than a conventional hockey stick. In use, when a hockey player has his upper hand on the angled gripping portion, it must pass over the enlarged lower socket portion to slide onto the shaft of the hockey stick, which would have a very uncomfortable end unnatural feel to it. Further, when sliding the upper hand back along the shaft to the angled gripping portion, the sliding movement of the upper hand would be impeded by the enlarged lower socket portion, which would be highly undesirable.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,364,792, issued Apr. 2, 2002 to Evanochko, discloses an Ice Hockey Stick having an elongate handle with a curved portion at the upper end of the handle. The curved portion is continuously and smoothly curved from the straight line of main shaft to the butt end of the hockey stick. This design is highly undesirable in that the effective angle of the upper handle portion continuously changes along its length, since it is curved. Accordingly, the angle at which the hockey player's upper hand holds the grip changes depending where the hand is on the grip, thus making it virtually impossible to find a consistent gripping angle.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a hockey stick having a comfortable upper grip.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an ergonomic hockey stick having a comfortable upper grip.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a hockey stick having comfortable upper grip that does not strain a hockey player's upper hand and wrist.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a hockey stick having comfortable upper grip that provides for maximum control of the hockey stick.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a hockey stick having comfortable upper grip that permits easy sliding action of the hockey player's upper hand between the upper grip and the hockey stick shaft.